On Jun 28, 7:44*pm, John Cochrane
wrote:
Ramy

The accident was described to me by friends on site... who probably
don't feel like talking about it. *I don't much, either, except to say
it's clear that it was a landing accident, hit trees on short final.
High winds a factor, probably. *Good field was selected, pattern was
flown, it wasn't some panic straight in thing. *Location is ~2 miles
SSE of YSA. *I liked Derek. *Very sad about this.

-Evan Ludeman / T8

Evan:

At 2 miles out it would only take 300 feet to make it home. "Good
pattern" and 2 miles out don't really add up. If you have 600 feet at
2 miles to make a good pattern, making it to the airport is easy.

I don't intend uninformed criticism of the pilot here, 2 miles out is
a coffin corner for all of us. *I am just curious whether to file the
tragedy in the *"final glide mishap" rather than "landout mishap"
category.

I note the Canadian rules say a 500 foot finish cylinder at 2 km, but
still the rather mild altitude penalty of 20 points per 100 feet,
unlike the current US rule in which you are scored as a landout 200
feet below finish height. *Also that the altitude is up to the CD. Do
you know the finish configuration at this contest? Sorry to bring it
up on ras, but this is the sort of thing that no NTSB ever would have
the wit to ask. 2 miles out puts the pilot half a mile from the finish
cylinder, an unusual place for a pilot to abandon a task.

http://www.sac.ca/index2.php?option=...iew&gid=538 &...

Thanks for the info. I'm only pursuing it because it has been a
terrible season, and perhaps time to search again if there is anything
we can do to lessen the frequency of these tragedies.

John Cochrane

I haven't talked to the person who has the flight log, let alone seen
it myself. We really can't analyze this accident without it. I don't
have an exact location for the crash and there is some uncertainty in
my mind as to whether the location given in a different article is
correct... because I can't match that tree line to anything I can see
on satellite views where the accident is said to have occurred. More
likely is that it is a bit farther out.

I really only weighed in here because I am as certain as I can be
based on second or third hand info that this was a landing accident,
not a thermaling stall/spin, as one might have suspected based on the
news.

-Evan / T8